2011-10-26 - Your Withdrawl is Rejected
The thing about being in business is that there's money involved. And where money is involved, so is a bank. And no matter how much neither the artistic genius of Janet van Dyne nor the science-minded medical genius of Susan Storm want to really do the bean-counting tedium of money matters, they are in charge; the 'buck' stops with them. And for them to remain in charge, they have to be in charge of interfacing certain things with the bank. Which is why, at this very moment, both lovely young women are sitting in the manager's office of their midtown Manhattan First Federal Bank, waiting for said manager in question to return with the paperwork they need to sign. "I know we have to be here. But I really wish they could have just emailed over these forms and we could have signed and co-witnessed from home or the office." Sue complains to her best friend. "If there's one place that makes me still feel like an errant pre-teen mucking about in the affairs of grown-ups, it's a banker's office." "Someday. Someday. There'll be an app for that." Jan says quite seriously. Well, as seriously as one CAN sound while she's on her super smart phone playing Angry Birds. "YES! Take that you stupid birds! Wait. I'm trying to save the birds, right? I can never tell in this game. Sue? Am I trying to hurt the birds by punting them through the air and into objects or am I saving them from evil predators by bopping them in the head? Eh. Either way its win win." "Probably. Just wish it was here now." Or before now. Whichever. Sue's serious train of thought is interrupted by Jan's AngryBirditis, and the blonde snorts and giggles, shaking her head. "You're supposed to be launching the birds at the pigs to beat up the pigs." Trust Sue to just pull that out of the air, despite not having the game installed on /her/ phone. But she isn't worried about the banker or feeling intimidated anymore; mission accomplished! As the two young women continue their talk of the wonder of smartphones - soon to control makeup, clothing, hair-color, tattoos and more! - more than a little bit of a hullaballoo sounds out in the main bank lobby about thirty feet away, down a short hall to the balcony and downstairs. The large front windows shatter, the glass hurled about wildly by near-hurricaine- force winds. In the midst of this screaming chaos, the whirling dervish of Whirlwind zips into the bank lobby and is heading for the tellers in a hurry. Uh-oh! "Pigs. Birds. Bah. They're all delicious when cooked right." Jan's comment seems definitive. The smart phone is tucked away in the little pouch, leather made and encrusted in diamonds just for Jan's baby.... badness happens. "Wow. Really?" Jan peers out through the glass wall of the manager's office. "Spinning top guy?" She sighs and vanishes, shrinking down. Today she's in her yellow costume, complete with cute skirt and the headphones. So she can listen to music while she trashes the bad guys. In mere moments she's zipping away, her little wings carrying her into the air ducts so she can go the long way around and get behind Whirlwind. Sue glances out the windows and gapes at what they can see of the chaos erupting downstairs in the main bank lobby. "You be careful!" she admonishes her partner, even as she is pulling /out/ her smarphone, tapping quickly on the keypad. Blonde hair shifts to brown, blue eyes darken to brown, and skin tone darkens to a tanned tone, even as her clothing morphs as well. The smartphone is tucked away as the Invisible Woman becomes - well, c'mon, you saw this coming - invisible! Then she opens up the door to the office and creates an invisible bubble around herself, propelling into the winds shielded from their turbulence but fighting it to make progress towards the heart of that 'storm' - Whirlwind. Meanwhile, Whirlwind's forceful winds and spinning form shred the counter trays of the tellers and gather up all of their money, visibly separating out the dye packs and hurling them aside to splat against the walls. The shattered glass has done a number on the decor and some of the civilians. Two guards rush forward and try to shoot Whirlwind, but that really doesn't go well for them, as they are soon sporting massive bruises from large pieces of furniture hurled at them, flattening both guards to the floor. Uh oh. What you can't see? CAN hurt you. Case in point? Invisible Woman. Another case in point? Two small to notice Wasp. Jan flies out through the ceiling vent on the bank floor. Immediately she is assaulted by the small storm of winds that are whipping around the bank. "Wooooaaaaah...." Jan says as she's buffeted back and forth. The tiny heroine tucks her legs in, presenting a small target for the winds to hit and increases the beating of her wings, pushing forward until she can begin zap zap zaping! at Whirlwind. Aware of her partner's distress through their comms, the Invisible Woman is relieved to hear the Winsome Wasp's zaps going off, because it means Jan got through the high winds and isn't splattered against a wall somewhere. As her first goal is to protect the innocents trapped in the bank, the Invisible Woman erects a force field - an invisible one, naturally - that shields the huddling customers and tellers from more debris, and sets about dragging the two felled guards around behind that shield. Which means more than a few folks are watching those bodies being dragged across the floor ... by nothing! The Wasp's zapzapzaps sting Whirlwind. Individaully they may not do much, but she never fires just one, and she has that tendency to aim for the really tender bits that aren't covered by his armor. So Whirlwind is raging at Wasp. "Ow! What the Hell?!" Once he spots Wasp, he makes a few good attempts to swipe at and swat the lovely Wasp out of his turbulent skies! "Gonna sqash you!" "Wow. Squash me. A bug joke. Original. So, Spinning Top Guy." Janet flies around, dodging as the goof in the green armor slaps the air in an attempt to knock her from the sky. "Do you mind if I call you Spinning Top guy? Why are you robbing a bank? With your powers you could make a fortune powering carnival rides at county fairs across the country!" Of course, Whirlwind starts ranting even more furiously as all of his attempts to swat the Winsome Wasp come to naught, making him feel like an even bigger idiot. And then she starts taunting at him, and he just gets that much crazier, picking up the speed and intensity of his winds as he rages. The Invisible Woman checks the injuries on both of the guards once they are safe behind her shield. Reassured that neither is dying, though one does have broken ribs, she lifts her head at last to survey the scene and start thinking of what to do to end this madness before the entire bank is torn to shreds. "I think we need to get him out of here, before he decides to go after the vault. In the open those winds won't be as bad." she sends to the Wasp on her comunicator, even as she prepares to act on any of Wasp's suggestions of what to do next. They work together. "Sure!" Wasp says, though she's flying almost at a standstill now. "I'll just... whooooaaa!!!!" Finally, the strength of the winds overcomes the strength of Janet's wings. She flies backwards. Right out the door and into the street. She hits the ground and bounces a few times. She sits up, trying to clear her head. Just in time to see Whirlwind come flying out of the bank. "Umm.. I've got him outside..." Jan says. "What now?" Invisible Woman sees this and winces. Poor Wasp. "He's a mini-hurricaine. Stay in the eye, above him, and zap away. I'm coming!" she calls across the comms. She checks to make sure everyone is as OK as they can get, and then shouts out - though no one can see her - "Someone call the cops and the ambulance!" - before she runs for the remains of the doors. Whirlwind is so furious that he follows Wasp outside rather than heading for the vault or making good his escape. "Little! Frakking! Bitch!" he shouts as he takes more swipes at her, and starts hurling pits of street debris at her, including cups, newspapers, cigarette butts, trashcans, and worse. Man, he's miffed. Woosh! While they won't hurt Wasp, at this speed and at her size? That debris can knock her out of the air. Wasp begins flying, doing aerial acrobatics as she dodges cups and trashcans and bits of trash. More than once, she has to blast something out of existence to avoid being hit. "Why is it whenever a man is upset at a woman the first word he goes for is bitch?" Jan pants as she finally makes her way into the eye of the storm. Of course, this doesn't give her a good shot since Whirlwind has that stupid conehead helmet. Still, her job is to distract him, so Jan uses her wasp stings to make that helmet ring like a bell. "Where's the creativity?" "Get ready." Susan sends as she emerges into the street, taking in the situation. She can hear the sirens sounding in the far distance, as her order has been followed and the call has been made: help is on the way, from the professionals. This may well mean that the Sentinels will be coming soon as well. So, time to wrap this up so that she and Jan can disappear back into the crowd in their civilian identities and leave everyone with the mystery of just /who/ took out Whirlwind. She concentrates, shaping a column force field horizontal to the ground. Three. Two. One. "Now!" she shouts, as she pushes with all her psychic might, sending that column straight through the surging winds around Whirlwind like a tree in a treefall trap in some Predator movie. The scariest part? There's no warning: it's invisible. WHAM!!! Whirlwind has just about been reduced to sputtering, fuming ineffectual rage as he tries to swat at the Wasp above him, while his winds cannot reach her. He has tried shifting positions suddenly to get her, but the very nature of his cyclone just pulls the wee woman right along within the eye, unaffected beyond merely being buffetted. And besides her taunting and prying, she has also been zotting him and his helmet repeatedly. But before Whirlwind can come up with some new strategy, he is instead hammered sideways by the invisible column, slammed so hard that he skips across the sidewalk and street, bouncing along pell-mell. A second smack - no winds to delay it this time - and he is just out cold. These two together can be quite a devastating team. "It would be wrong to gloat. A better woman would be humble." Jan says as she flies over the unconscious bodsy of the Whirlwind. "And my partner won't gloat a bit, I promise. Me? HA HA! You got beaten by two guuuuuurrrrrlllllss..." She giggles and then flies off, back into the bank. When the cops come they'll find the rather wealthy and famous Susan Storm and Janet van Dyne waiting in the manager's office, aghast at the crime plaguing this horrid city. Susan cannot help giggling softly as they sit in the manager's office once more, huddled down because that's what they /should/ be doing after something like /this/ happens when /all they did was go to the bank/ and they are so never doing this again and ... "You know, you are so wickedly funny. All those things you never say when we're in public? They call come out for Wasp. I shouldn't, but I find it so amusing. And adorable, really. I'm glad we could help." But even so, she is just as glad that they, two girls, beat up Whirlwind. Not the Sentinels, the professional superheroes. But two quiet unknowns. And no one knows it. No one but the two of them. "So. We should definitely mention to the manager about getting that app made. No more bank visits."